


Blind Eye Turned

by SilverMyfanwy



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Assasins (mentioned), Attempted Bribery, Border Guard, Border Guard! Astrid Hofferson, Corruption, Dragon Trade, Dragon's Edge (How to Train Your Dragon), Dragons, Gen, Illegal Goods, Minor Corruption, Pubs and Bars, Smuggler! Hiccup, Smuggling, black market, smugglers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 07:05:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15238014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMyfanwy/pseuds/SilverMyfanwy
Summary: In her job as a Border Guard, it's Astrid's job to make sure no illegal goods get shipped in or out of the island of Berk. For her favourite smugglers though, she's more than willing to turn a blind eye to the secret compartments and unmarked barrels. (Even Border Guards need cheap booze sometimes.)Then comes the day when she lets Hiccup Haddock take a dragon in and even he is surprised.





	Blind Eye Turned

**Author's Note:**

> I've been dreaming of putting fanfiction on the internet since I was 9. Now it's finally happening and I'm nowhere near as scared as I think I should be.  
> This is a very self-indulgent fic full of dragons, smuggling and shady corners for the fandom that is my first love and got me into fanfiction in the first place.  
> Enjoy!

Astrid loved her job.

She really did, even though sometimes it could get really, really boring. Endless days spent standing at the docks waiting for the next ship to come in so she could go and check it for smuggling or illegal goods could really get on your nerves, particularly when it was normally raining and cold. Fishing boats were what usually went through the check points but once or twice a month a heavily patched ship with a motley crew and a red and black skull painted into the sail would come sailing past.

The ship was called the _Night Fury_ and its captain was a one-legged man called Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. His crew was made up of Faithful Fishlegs Ingerman, Spiteful Snotlout Jorgenson, Harmful Heather and the most feared twins available for hire on the back marker: Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston. The _Night Fury_ had a reputation that lingered half in the shadows and danced half in the daylight and it was Astrid’s worst and best customer, if you could call it that.

When the _Night Fury_ drew up on a freezing October morning with a scorch mark in the foresail that hadn’t been there at their last meeting, Astrid fought to hide a grin and rubbed her gloved hands together. Fishlegs, who was at the wheel, gave her a cheery wave that she returned. Within seconds of Heather leaping ashore to fasten the painter, Hiccup came grinning out of the hold.

“Good morning Hofferson.” he climbed off the deck and onto the dock. “How are you today?”

“Wonderful. How are you?”

“Top of the world.” Hiccup folded his arms. “Okay, enough of the niceties. Let’s get down to business.”

The look in Hiccup’s eyes and the tone of his voice made Astrid approach her favourite smugglers with more caution than normal. She too folded her arms and looked Hiccup square in the eye. “Where would you rather I didn’t look today, then?”

“Actually, we’d quite like it if you didn’t look anywhere at all.” Hiccup lowered his voice considerably. “And if you aren’t willing to give us a free pass, we would be willing to buy one off you.”

Astrid ignored the chinking coins in Hiccup’ pockets and took a step forwards. She was normally happy to make sure that a blind eye was turned towards their secret compartments and barrels of un-taxed alcohol but there was no way she was just going to let the whole ship go un-searched. “Let me search the ship.”

“Come on Astrid, let’s be reasonable.” Hiccup chinked the coins again.

Astrid stood her ground. “I will be searching the ship and I refuse to be bribed.”

Heather, Fishlegs and Snotlout all slipped weapons out of their belts and moved closer towards their boss.

“Now, now, Astrid, see sense here.” Hiccup’s grin was sliding off his voice. “Take the money, or don’t, and let us go.”

“No. Now move aside so I can search your ship.” Astrid gestured for Hiccup to move. “Or would you rather that I called in my colleagues and had you all arrested and locked up for the next two centuries?”

“You can’t jail us for that long.” Hiccup scoffed.

“Try two decades instead. But what’s your choice?”

Hiccup sighed and stepped aside, giving Astrid a full view of his crew and their weapons. Astrid froze. “What?” Hiccup asked. He turned around and also froze.

“How ‘bout you put them away or we can add another three to seven years onto your two decades of imprisonment?” Astrid suggested dryly.

“Do what the nice lady says,” Hiccup told his crew and they slipped their weapons back into their belts as silently as they had removed them.

Astrid jumped onto the _Night Fury,_ Hiccup right behind her. Hiccup stamped his foot on the deck twice. “If you’re secretly communicating, Hiccup Haddock-”

“Ruff and Tuff, please don’t kill Astrid when she comes below deck!” Hiccup shouted.

“What about abduction?” the muffled response came up through the planks.

“Absolutely no abduction or I will find you and hand you over to the police.”

“What about torture?”

“Absolutely no torture either or- hey!”

Astrid had got fed up of waiting for her safety to be guaranteed and pushed past Hiccup to the hatch. She wrenched it open and gave the cast-iron ring handle a look over. It was covered in thick orange rust. “Watch you don’t get caught by someone else with this lock. You can get a fine for faulty locks like that. Breaches Safety Code Three.”

Hiccup groaned. “Come on, just get on with the search.”

Astrid swung her legs down into the dark belly of the ship and pushed herself over the edge. She landed in a silent crouch and pulled a lighter and torch out of her pocket. She lit the end of the torch and saw the familiar corridor in a far worse state than normal. There were burn marks in at least eight places, inch-deep gouges along the floor and two doors were hanging off their hinges.

Ruffnut the Ruinous and Tuffnut the Terrible were standing at the end of the corridor holding spears and guarding a heavily locked metal door. “Astrid Hofferson,” they drawled.

“Let me through that door.” Astrid ordered.

“Or what?” Ruffnut challenged, picking at something between her yellow teeth with ragged, grimy nails.

“Let her through, guys!” Hiccup shouted from above them.

The twins groaned. “He’s such a spoilsport,” Tuffnut grumbled and they stepped aside.

Astrid stayed still.

“Aren’t you going through?” Tuffnut demanded.

“I need you to unlock it first.”

“Oh yeah.” Ruffnut took a ring of keys off her belt and unlocked the door. “Good luck.”

Astrid hesitated. “What do you mean?”

The twins began whistling in a less than innocent way and she knew she would not be getting any answers out of them any time soon. She stepped inside the room they had been guarding. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and when they did, she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

-

Meanwhile, up on deck, Snotlout was practicing his counting. “7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and-”

A scream rattled out from under their feet.

“She’s seen him.” Hiccup headed towards the hath.

“What are you going to do?” Heather asked anxiously.

“Options are limited.” Hiccup perched himself at the edge of the hatch. “In fact, I could count them on one hand if I had an extra finger. 1, we kill her; 2, we convince the world she’s insane; 3, we kidnap her and take her with us; 4, we knock her out and hope she gets amnesia; 5, we persuade her never to tell anyone or 6, she comes with us willingly.”

“That last one doesn’t sound like an option.” Fishlegs said skeptically.

“You’re right, it isn’t. Guess I don’t need that extra finger after all.” Hiccup slid down the hatch. “Ruff, Tuff, has she passed out?”

“Not sure.” Tuffnut called out.

“What do you mean you aren’t sure?” Hiccup stumbled on something. “Get a light on, for Thor’s sake!”

One of the twins lit a torch built into a bracket on the wall and Hiccup kicked the fishhook he had stumbled on into a corner. “Can you see her now?”

The twins shook their heads and Hiccup saw why. He swore.

“The door swung shut when we weren’t looking.” Ruff explained sheepishly.

“Open it! Open it now!” Hiccup waved his hands around exasperatedly. “We don’t want a dead body on our hands!”

The twins opened the door as fast as they could and Hiccup raced through the doorway and then froze.

Astrid was sitting cross-legged and staring Toothless in the eye. Toothless’ pupils were not dilated and angry, they were wide and inquisitive. His ears were pricked and he was sitting on his haunches.

“Astrid I can explain-” Hiccup began, nerves breaking into his voice.

“No need.” she stood up and smiled at him.

“No… no need?”

“You should just have told me if you had a dragon on board, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third.”

“Should I?” Hiccup could not have predicted this set of results had he and Fishlegs brainstormed for an hour.

“There is a reason why I am a border control guard checking ships and it is not because of the early mornings, low pay and getting to work in bad weather.” Astrid pulled something out of a pocket in her jacket and held it out to Hiccup. He took it.

“A tail spine from a Deadly Nadder?” Hiccup gaped at her. “Where did you get this? These things are on third level black market auctions, they’re expensive!”

“Don’t ask me where I got it from and I won’t ask you where you got hold of a Night Fury.” she took the Nadder spine back. “Well I can’t see anything here that’s going to be an issue, so I’ll just get off your ship and you can go on your way.”

“But I have a dragon, a _Night Fury_ , on-board.” Hiccup stammered. “How are you letting me-”

“Do you want to get arrested or not?” Astrid asked incredulously. “Because if you’re that desperate to get locked up, I can report you for that rusty lock, but that probably won’t get you any jail time, just a fine.”

Hiccup gaped at Astrid and then at Toothless. His mouth stayed firmly open the whole time he watched her walk back onto the dock and then wave them along.

“Hiccup, are you alright?” Fishlegs asked. “You seem a bit-”

“Shocked? Surprised? Flabbergasted? Gobsmacked? Head over heels in love?” Snotlout suggested.

“Snotlout!” Fishlegs scolded.

“There is more to that woman than I had thought.” Hiccup narrowed his eyes. “And I want to find out what. We’re going straight to the Cross-Eyed Yak. And ask around on Astrid Hofferson.”

“Why?” Heather was confused.

“She owns the tail spine of a Deadly Nadder. I want to know why.”

“B-but Nadder spines are Class B illegal goods a-and she’s a border control guard.” Fishlegs stammered.

“That’s exactly why we’re asking around.”

-

By the time the crew of the _Night Fury_ had finished their usual buying, selling, swapping and delivering in back alleys and busy street corners, it was thick dark, the hour of the night when nobody was out on the streets just yet and the police were busy at nightclub doors. The crew, which would normally have a bit of trouble getting across town, walked unhindered to the Cross-Eyed Yak, a pub derelict on the outside but doing a roaring trade inside. It was a crooked, dodgy place and was the go to location for finding someone to do your dirty work on Berk as long a you could pay. The _Night Fury_ ’s crew were regulars there.

The bar keeper, Gobber the Belch, was an old friend of Hiccup’s father and Hiccup’s former mentor. He had one leg, one arm and a missing tooth he had replaced with a stone. He grinned when he saw Hiccup come in. “Here comes trouble!”

Hiccup took a seat at the bar and his crew disappeared across the pub and into shadowy corners. “Can I talk to you for a bit Gobber? There’s something I need to ask about.”

“Of course!” Gobber grinned. “The usual?”

“No. I need something a bit stronger.”

“Bad day at the docks?” to most, Gobber’s tone would not have been sympathetic, but Hiccup knew that he was trying his very hardest.

“More like a mad day.” Hiccup took a swig from the tankard Gobber handed him. “This is good, what is it?”

“Snakebite, vodka and apple juice.” Gobber leaned across the counter. “Now what was it you needed to ask me?”

“What do you know about Astrid Hofferson? The border security guard with blonde hair, blue eyes and a scary glow around her face.”

Gobber hesitated. “Are you sure you want to ask that?”

“What do you mean?” Hiccup asked warily.

“Well, she is known to have come in here more than once a month.” Gobber began slowly. “And her family have been regulars here for years, and not just the ones looking for drinks, either.”

“But what about her? Astrid Hofferson. I want to know about _her._ ” Hiccup emphasised.

“Why, are you trying to get some dirt on her so you can get her fired?”

“No. I’ve got plenty of dirt if I want it.” Hiccup frowned into his drink but Gobber looked up in surprise.

“You’ve got dirt on Astrid Hofferson?”

“Yep.”

“What is it?”

“I’d tell you, but you can’t keep secrets.”

Gobber pouted.

“What kind of things have her family been here for?”

Gobber thought for a moment. “They seemed to be willing to do most things, really, but I’ve heard that they were big in dragons before something went wrong- Fearless Finn Hofferson got killed or something, he would’ve been Astrid’s uncle- and they stopped. They stopped offering their services in dragons around here, at least.”

“Do you think they might still have connections in the dragon trade?”

“May do. If you want to find out you ought to ask around dragon trading places. Berk isn’t one of them, and hasn’t been one for a long time.”

“I’ve never heard of the Hoffersons in dragons.” Hiccup mused.

Gobber scoffed. “You’ve barely been in the dragon trade for two minutes, of course you haven’t heard of them! You won’t have heard two thirds of the dragon trading names.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes and carried on drinking.

In the darkest corner of the pub, the corner normally reserved for the very best, most wanted, most deadly assassins, a hooded figure with shining blue eyes and a National Security Force issue knife hidden in a belt, smirked.

-

Four days later, Astrid was on shift again (a late night one this time) when the _Night Fury_ passed through the checkpoints on its way out of Berk. The ship did not stop where it should have and carried on sailing.

“Oi!” Astrid shouted. “Where do you think you’re going? Stop right now!”

The ship carried on going. Hiccup, who was the one steering the ship, didn’t turn around.

“Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third get back here or I shut the gate and give you a red mark!” Astrid roared.

Hiccup tipped his head back and put an arm out to the right. Snotlout dropped an anchor over the side and the ship stopped. Astrid ran along the dock so she was level with it. “Gangplank. Now.”

Hiccup glared at Astrid. “You don’t need the gangplank. I’ve seen you jump it at least ten times!”

“Do you want to push your luck? Do you really want to push your luck?” Astrid challenged.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and signaled for the gangplank to be brought down. Astrid walked across and headed straight for the hatch to below decks. They’d replaced the lock and a thick, shiny, iron latch was now holding it shut. Astrid gave it a tug and it stayed firm. “That’s good. Now let me down.”

“Why do you need to look?” Ruffnut asked. “You looked on the way in.”

“I need to check on some things.” Astrid caught the key Hiccup threw her and let herself down. Some of the damage done to the corridor had been fixed. Astrid knocked on the metal door.

“Who is it?” Heather asked.

“Astrid Hofferson from Border Control, here to check the ship.”

Seven locks were unlocked and Astrid took a step forwards. The Night Fury was eating fish out of a basket and Heather was standing next to it, holding her axe.

“What’s its name?” Astrid asked quietly.

Heather was taken aback. “Toothless. His name is Toothless.”

Astrid nodded. “And where did you get him?”

“Hiccup found him.”

“So you captured him?”

“Not exactly. When Hiccup found him, he was missing half a tail section.”

Toothless’ tail shifted and Astrid noticed a red and white prosthetic section on one side. She couldn’t see any chains holding him down or smell any dragon nip to keep him pacified. “So, he couldn’t fly?”

“Not then. Hiccup tamed him, bonded with him, built him with a new tail.”

Astrid nodded again. “Interesting.” she turned around and left.

Hiccup was waiting impatiently. “Can we go now?”

“No.” Astrid folded her arms. “Where are you going with your dragon?”

Hiccup was taken aback. “We… we’re taking him to the Edge.”

“Where’s that?”

“It’s called Dragon’s Edge. It’s our base. It’s secret.”

“You’re not going to sell your dragon?” Astrid was surprised.

“I could never sell Toothless.” Hiccup was unusually serious. “I don’t hunt dragons. _We_ don’t hunt dragons. We help them.” he rubbed his neck in embarrassment. “Well, we will do, anyway. When we get back."

When Astrid made eye contact with him, he seemed scared.

“You won’t- you won’t hurt him, will you?” Hiccup’s voice shook. “Or have him taken away?”

“Stay there.” Astrid commanded. She walked across the gangplank and into the small hut that served as an office for the Border Control guards. She opened her locker, pulled out a bag she had packed the day before, hastily wrote a resignation notice and pinned it to her boss’s desk. She ran back to the _Night Fury_ and jumped on.

“You can bring the gangplank up now.” she smiled.

“But you’re on the ship.” Hiccup gestured to the floor, confused. “And what’s in the bag?”

“My things.”

“But why do you need your things?”

“I’m coming with you.” Astrid grinned and the crew stared at her in shock.

“You’re coming with us?” Tuffnut echoed.

“Did you really think I was mad enough not to go with you? I heard you in the Cross-Eyed Yak on Tuesday and though it was about time I hand in my notice.”

“But you’re a border guard!” Fishlegs flustered. “And what do you know about dragons?”

Astrid whistled and a blue and yellow Deadly Nadder came flying out of the night to land on deck and nuzzle Astrid's side. “This is Stormfly. Are we ready to go?”

A grin spread from ear to ear across Hiccup’s face. “You betcha.”

THE END.


End file.
